Shadowfall: Book summary
The walls of this particular redoubt are a dark brown, speckled with white. The Anteroom is smaller than usual, and when they are crowed into it, someone stumbles, starting a chain reaction, which ends up knocking Dean back into the gateway and the door closes. He returns to the gateway in Maine. Ryan follows right away, the group settling on a bridge near the Memphis Bridge in a Months time.
Ryan returns to the gateway in Maine. He heads out as soon as he wakes up to hunt for Dean. The computers begin to malfunction and a fire begins. He finds Dean huddled in a corner. He grabs the boy and they barely make it back to the gateway for the return time limit.
Back with the others they wait until the two of them recovered enough to travel before exploring the redoubt. There is a long corridor which ends at an elevator which they use to take to the top portion of the redoubt. Here they get a good meal, shower and rest up. Dean wants to try out some of the video games, but Ryan wants him to do the rest. He falls asleep during the meal.
During the next morning they finish exploring the redoubt. Dean and Jak go play games. The others find a diary and start to read. Just as they get to the part of the diary when the writer mentions that they boobie trapped the games, Jak spots the implode grenades and gets Dean out just before they blow. They both suffer minor injuries, but live to talk about the experience.
They decide to leave the redoubt and find out where they are. The redoubt is located on an island and J.B. determines that they are about a half mile off the Californian coastline. They spend the rest of the day hunting for wood and other items to build a raft. Night falls before they are finished and they elect to stay down on the beach for the night.
A single huge mutant crab attacks the group, but they are able to inflict enough damage to the creature to send it back out to sea. The rest of the night passes uneventfully.
They finish the raft first thing in the morning and make their way across the water to the mainland. They pass a group of grey whales and are un-molested. When they hit the beach, they find a small building with a boat inside it. There is a hole in the bottom of the boat, but other than that it is in great condition.
Leaving the coastline, they head deep into the interior. The area is filled with Geysers and boiling sulfur pits. The area is also somewhat radioactive. They do spot a crater that might have been caused by a nuclear weapon. Dean approaches a Geyser without knowing it, and Doc spots the fact that it is about to erupt. He just manages to save the boy.
After the eruption they are attacked by a small group of scabbies. The mutants don’t present much of a challenge. It isn’t long before they escape the area and find themselves a small camp. A group of Brushwooders live in the camp and they receive a cool but non hostile reception. They are invited to stay for the night and dine with them. One thing that Ryan and J.B. notice is the fact that there is a distinct lack of fighting males in the ville. They learn that the men are out hunting mutant pigs.
During the meal they meet the leader of the brushwooders as well as a bald man named Straub. He appears to be either psionic, or possess a great deal of skill with hypnosis. They learn that Straub collects hair that he then sells to rich barons throughout the Deathlands. He has taken an unhealthy interest in Jak and Krysty. The finish the meal and then head out to their huts to get some rest.
Doc beds down first, placing cotton in his ears to drown out the noise of Trader’s snoring. It prevents him from succumbing to the hypnotic rhythm of the drums. This beat, along with herbs burned in the fires, place everyone else into a deep sleep. Doc, answering the call of nature, spots Straub and a dozen men entering the tents. He uses his Le Mat and ambushes the men, killing one named Schickle. The sound of the weapon firing wakes up the rest of the group and they fight their way out of the encampment.
Heading through the woods, they head in the general direction of the local barony. They want to see if the baron is as bad as the others say he is. Along the way Trader and Doc get into an altercation once again, and this time weapons are drawn. Ryan is forced to step in between the two men to prevent bloodshed, and he is nearly unable to prevent it. The others have to draw on Trader before he finally lowers his weapon.
It is still a way off from dawn, and they can make out the sound of the mutant pigs approaching. Knowing they have little choice, they climb the nearest tree, barely making it when the pigs arrive, led by a huge mutant boar. The animals crouch around the bottom of the tree and start to wait. After the first light of dawn breaks over the treetops, the pigs begin to dig around the roots, trying to weaken the tree so they can knock their prey down. Abe ends up falling out of the tree, scaring the pigs. The others, seeing the situation, prepare to fire when the pigs finally leave, albeit reluctantly, when horses can be heard approaching.
The approaching riders belong to the local baron. They don’t say anything about having spent part of the night with the brushwooders, and say that they passed through the sulfur pits along the coast to get to where they are when the mutant pigs treed them. The sec men accept the story and take them to meet with the baron.
The barony is ramshackle at best, the sec men poorly armed. It wouldn’t be all that difficult for the brushwooders to overthrow the baron. Before they meet the baron, Dean is introduced to the baron’s son Jamie who happens to bear a striking resemblance to him. Young Dean doesn’t like the other boy that much because he talks like an adult, and is better educated.
They also meet the baron and are treated very well, fed, and given rooms for the night. In exchange Ryan agrees to go with the sec men on a patrol in the morning.
After breakfast they head out. Trader, Ryan, Jak, J.B. head out with the sec men, the others, including Dean and Doc are left behind. This angers the women, but they have no real choice but to go along with it.
Both Dean and Jamie decide to head out after the main group about an hour later. After the main groups become delayed because of Jak’s horse, Dean and Jamie stop for a few minutes at an old mill. Here they are both captured by Straubs men and taken back to the brushwooders camp. Krysty catches up with the main group, letting them know that the boys left the ville. They discover a short time later that the two were captured.
Dean insists on Jamie going along with whatever he does, and not to argue. Dean convinces Straub that he, not Jamie is the baron’s son. Straub buys it and sends Jamie back to the ville with Straub’s ransom note.
The others, following the brushwooders trail, encounter Jamie. They see the ransom note and send Jamie on. The group head to the camp, intending on taking out the people, Straub especially, when disaster strikes. Part way down the hill, one of the sec men slip and falls, alerting the camp to their presence. Two sec men are killed, and the one who fell is captured. The others, barely manage to get away, but J.B., Ryan and Jak are all injured.
Straub interrogates Dean about the raid, and the boy is able to convince him that he didn’t know that it was coming. He recognizes the sec man they captured, and in order to prevent him from revealing who he really is, Dean snatches Straubs blade and kills him. He claims that it was to save him from the torture. Dean actually hurts the man, who then proceeds to beat the hell out of him for it.
The others have their wounds treated and eat dinner. They come up with a plan to attack the camp at midnight, and Trader is going to lead the party since Ryan isn’t in full combat form. The baron, Weyman sends ten of his sec men, then thanks the group for their help in taking care of the problem. They all go to get some rest.
Doc, not able to sleep, goes for a walk. He encounters Jamie, who is about to take a horse and attempt to rescue Dean, but Doc lets him know that such an act would be futile, resulting in his own Death. Jamie is able to see the wisdom in Doc’s words.
At midnight they all meet. Trader announces his attack plan to the group, and both he and Ryan once again nearly come to blows over it, as it is one hell of a bad plan, and Ryan attempts to point it out to him before something really bad happens. They all head out.
Ear the brushwooders camp Krysty senses terrible danger and tries to warn Trader about it. He ignores her and continues on with his plans. While this is happening Straub slips in behind the group and quietly takes out the sec men that were sent by the baron. He uses his hypnotic skill to it's fullest, but it doesn't quite work on one of the sec men and he's able to scream out a warning.
The others retreat back to the ville, but Ryan stay’s behind, determined to get Dean back. He stops for a minute to take a drink out of a stream and when he looks up, he’s facing a mutant pig. Knowing that the can’t afford to fight it, he hisses at it to fuck off. To his amazement, the pig leaves.
Using the directions Jamie gave to him, he heads into the camp and locates the tent that would most likely hold Dean. When he enters it, he finds an old woman tormenting the boy, telling him what they are going to do to him. Ryan clubs her, killing her and cuts his son free. They quickly slip out of the camp.
As they travel, Ryan formulates a plan on how to stop the brushwooders. He and Dean discuss it, as well as the fact that Dean want’s to get a proper education, as the fact that Jamie has far more book knowledge gets to him. Ryan considers taking Dean to a private school near Krysty’s home of Harmony in Colorado.
All the while the others are preparing for a potential attack on the part of the brushwooders, and waiting for Ryan to get back.
Dean and Ryan split up, ready to set his plan in motion. As Ryan is waiting to get a fire started, he finds that the general and his posse, the mutant pigs, found him first. Ryan is unable to fire on the pig, for that is the signal they agreed on for Dean to start his own blaze. In the end, Ryan is able to take out the huge animal by jumping on it’s back and driving his Panga deep into its neck, severing the spinal cord. The pig is killed, the others gather around it, unable to understand what has happened. Ryan starts his fire, and sets off the signal for Dean.
Soon a good blaze is going. Father and son join together and watch the carnage unfold as the pigs head toward the Brushwooder’s camp. The men and women were celbrating their victory against the baron’s men, and many were totally drunk, several couples screwing right out in the open. They hear the stampede and everyone, Struab included, head towards the coast line, right into the sulfur pits. The encampment is destroyed, so Dean and Ryan return to the ville.
They spend several days resting at the ville, healing their wounds before heading to the coastline. They wish the baron and his son the best of luck. The brushwooder’s camp was totally destroyed, and as the head towards the coast, they find dead pigs and people everywhere. The raft is exactly where they left it.
The group board it, and at the last minute Trader pushes them off, staying behind with Abe. The last thing that Ryan sees of his old leader is a group of scabbies, the surviving brushwooders, and Straub surrounding the two men. There isn’t a thing that they can do.
End of Shadowfall.